Which Pokemon did you consider "useless" for journeys?

[Sassy Milkshake]

Every time I got a free Eevee I boxed it. Stones were hard to come by in Johto and the other times it took awhile to learn any moves that weren't normal or Bite.

 

[RockManFan]

Zubat. Though that may just be because I get so tired of fighting a billion zubats in every cave. I have been thinking about trying a Team Rocket play through of Blue though. (Rattata, Koffing, Ekans, Zubat, etc.)

 

[Heracles4]

I caught a ralts and I evolved it to Kirlia, and at that point, even weaker attacks would WHKO her...and she was the strongest pokemon on my team >.> (Sapphire)

 

[Haza]

Before I knew anything about competitive strategies and all of that jazz, I found Smeargle to be the weakest gimmick of all time. That and Ditto.

 

[DowntownDumpling]

I actually find the Ralts family to be pretty useless. I tried to finish a single-Pokemon playthrough of Emerald with only a Gardevoir, but it learns NOTHING but Psychic-type attacks when leveling up and isn't compatible with that many TMs, plus its Defense and regular Attack are pretty bad. I had to renege and keep my Torchic in my party (which I eventually had to level up to a Blaziken because there were so many Dark-type Pokemon [and other strong ones for which Gardevoir wouldn't cut it] that I had to fight over the course of the game).

The Snivy family would also work. A garbage movepool is acceptable for a pretty weak Pokemon overall, but not for a starter.

Same with the Ponyta family (again, movepool - this also goes for many other Fire- and Electric-type Pokemon), most Ground/Rock Pokemon (Water- and Grass-type attacks are an obvious choice and quite common, plus most Ground/Rock-types have awful Special Defense), and all of the final dragon families (Dratini, Larvitar, etc. - they're strong, but not that strong considering how long they take to level up and evolve).

There are some Pokemon I found to be criminally overlooked, though, and very useful to me, such as Electabuzz (even before being an Electivire), Jynx, Porygon2, Dusclops, Poliwrath, Butterfree (most people seem to ditch it after beating Brock in Kanto if they picked Charmander), Claydol, Lapras, Scrafty, and Heracross.

It seems like the only Pokemon anyone uses competitively anymore are starters, legal legendaries (birds, dogs, Regis, etc.), final dragons, Milotic, Gengar, Staraptor, Machamp, Steelix, and Gardevoir. Kind of annoying, really.

 

[Captain Gizmo]

I would say Ditto. Unless you're planning to EV train it's HP, anything you do to train it will be pretty much useless since it copies every single stat of the other Pokemon except for the HP.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Because I usually decide which Pokemon to use for my team based on the internet, the only I used in-game I would considered not worthy of use are Liepard and Unfezant. Liepard's level-up movepool stinks, as well as its frailness, and Unfezant doesn't learn any good physical Flying moves that isn't Fly.

 

[Arlo]

I'm hard-pressed to think of any pokemon that are simply useless. There are many that struggle a bit, mostly due to low stats, poor movepools or both - Plusle and Minun, Ledian, Spinda, Purrloin.... But even those aren't entirely useless - they're just a bit tougher to work with. There are others that can be sort of useless in battle - like Ditto or Smeargle - but are immensely useful in other ways. I like to figure out ways to use the unlikely ones, and generally can find a way, and when it works out, I actually much prefer using them - ubers are boring. Yeah - there are some who are so poor that I don't want to invest the necessary time and effort to get something out of them, but that doesn't mean that they're useless - just that I'm not that interested in using them at the moment.

And that said, some of the answers here have really surprised me - a few pokemon mentioned who are quite decidedly anything BUT useless - but... I should just leave it at that.

 

[Polizard]

For me there are no real useless Pokemon if you have some skill a little patience and a dash of luck, any Pokemon can be useful, there are however Pokemon that i consider bad. I have decided to list the top 5 bad Pokemon below:

Snivy evolutionary line, now i am a big fan of the theory that starter Pokemon have to be in your team at least until you become champion of the region and until generation 5 i have found that every starter Pokemon even Meganium (I hate Meganium) have been able to stand on there own and generally fight Pokemon 2-3 levels higher than them and usually win. Now I have started the game with Snivy and found it to be the worst starter Pokemon in Pokemon history. It is just bad especially early in game.

Purrloin evolutionary line, what a useless Pokemon, I have used this Pokemon 3 times and It is just bad it gets beaten by almost everything it is just no good, I do not recommend it to anyone.

Hoppip evolutionary line, Now this is a Pokemon i have given numerous chances to cause im not going to lie i kinda for some unknown reason find it cute, however this evolutionary line is just bad even at its finally stage it has mediocre stats which I could tolerate but throw in a a mediocre move pool and that to me equals bad Pokemon.

Miltank, I find this Pokemon not only bad but annoying, i think there is something in the games code that makes Whitney's Miltank really strong and hard to beat but any Miltank in your possession utterly useless i have used this Pokemon a few times in the past and i follow the same basic idea of Whitney, Attract, Rollout, Body Slam and Toxic. and despite having good stats it just does not hold up against other Pokemon.

Kricketot evolutionary line,enough said really just a bad Pokemon in general

 

[Arlo~]

I don't really have one. Used to be Zubat, but then I actually tried using him, and he's become the main asset of my team! Now a Crobat!

 

[DowntownDumpling]

Miltank, I find this Pokemon not only bad but annoying, i think there is something in the games code that makes Whitney's Miltank really strong and hard to beat but any Miltank in your possession utterly useless i have used this Pokemon a few times in the past and i follow the same basic idea of Whitney, Attract, Rollout, Body Slam and Toxic. and despite having good stats it just does not hold up against other Pokemon.

Many have complained about this, and I am no exception. I suspect that the discrepancy between Whitney's Miltank and any Miltank that one is likely to have at any given time arises from the fact that Whitney's is probably by a wide margin the most powerful Pokemon introduced by that point, in terms of both level and stats, but by the time one is able to get one's own Miltank, it's not at that high a level, more powerful Pokemon are available, and it grows slowly in terms of EXP.

 

[BanditThePikachu]

I'd say Ditto. It's really only useful for breeding.

 

[DowntownDumpling]

Oh, and I'd like to add Unown to my list. I've just never gotten their appeal, beyond arranging them in your party or Boxes to spell out curse words or your name.

 

[ranso33]

Certainly, whithout a doubt its Unown. And to remember the countless hours I spend trying to get them all, thinking I would gain something, is just to painfull.

I agree with you. I never did any of that and it was never a problem. I know how to do it but I just don't bother. I have already won tournaments (PvP) and I can tell that the only thing that really matters is having a good team with advantages over all kinds.

 

[pikakitten]

At one point as a child I was trying to catch all the unown but they're not really useful in journeys just for collection which I now find twisted as I have grown with age, 6 pokemon, no more xD

 

[Schwan]

I'm a fan of Umbreon, but it is very very very useless in a ingame run-through.

When I went through Black 2 I IV bred and EV trained a physical attacking Umbreon in Platinum to test it out throughout a story, and it actually was pretty good. I move tutored it Sucker Punch, (didn't even know about Curse til later) and Secret Power, and it actually beat alotta guys for me. I was thrilled! I'm actually planning on making a new one with the moveset Curse, Sucker Punch, Swagger and another physical dark attack, or Secret Power again, because I absolutely love that attack.

 

[bolter1]

Well the game is easy enough that thankfully use your favorites, bar things like Delibird. Doesn't discount the fact that Umbreon is pretty bad relatively no matter how you slice it.

In Colosseum, I kept Umbreon on my team the entire game despite "better" pokemon being available like the Legendary Beasts, the Johto starter, Hariyama, Ampharos, Quagsire, Medicham, Flygon, Heracross, etc, but he was my strongest and most reliable team member.
I find pokemon with low stats and bad movepools to be hard to use (I wouldn't call any pokemon useless); Pokemon such as Liepard (ditched it before it even evolved), Kriketune and Butterfree. I noticed that a lot of people seem to be calling the more defense-oriented pokemon useless which I find strange as they're the ones that pull me through when my sweepers fail,which happens often enough since they have poor HP and Defenses. I just want to ask: are you sure it's the pokemon and not you?

 

[katiekun11]

This is game-specific, so I'm going to kick it over to the gaming section!

I loved Azurill's design but it was so weak when I tried to use it that I had to drop it. >_o

Really? I always picked up an Azurill as soon as I could, since I flew through Emerald with it... it literally blew Tate & Liza out of the water & I basically just crashed through the Elite 4 with it & Glailie as a team!

Most useless pokemon, to me, is slakoth. & its' evolutions.

 

[bwburke94]

In Generations I and III, Magikarp/Gyarados. Not getting any physical STAB (other than possibly Hidden Power in Gen III) ruins that big attack stat, not to mention those first 15-19 levels you need to switch-train it through.

In Generation V, Deino/Zweilous/Hydreigon. I prefer to bring six level 60 Pokemon into Victory Road, not five.

 

[Cerberus87]

Gyarados was boss in 1st gen. Dragon Rage early on made it incredibly easy to train, and it could have a lot of Special moves which ran off a decent Special stat. 2nd gen ruined it, 3rd gen gave it a little back, and 4th gen turned it into an awesome powerhouse. Really, in HGSS, the red Gyarados will get you through the game without problems.

Purrloin was one of the worst Pokémon I raised. Weak and dies easily.

Zubat is also a pain to raise until it learns Wing Attack right before it evolves.